Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

belittle

/bɪˈlɪt.əl/ verb

Forms belittles belittling belittled

  1. verb (ambitransitive) To disparage, depreciate, or minimize the importance, value, merit, or significance of someone or something. “Don't belittle your colleagues.”
  2. verb (transitive) To make small.

Synonyms

understate make light of denigrate degrade deprecate disparage downplay play down trivialize bagatellize abase banalize cut down de-emphasize derogate dispraise lilliputianize make little of make nothing of minimize pick at diminish

Antonyms

big up exaggerate cut it fat hyperbolize overcharge overdo overemphasize overstate play up stretch three-sheet

Etymology

From be- + little. Coined by Thomas Jefferson in 1782.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To make little or less in a moral sense; to speak of in a depreciatory or contemptuous way. T. Jefferson.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “belittle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details